Number-displayer.



H. H. MBLANSON.

NUMBER DISPLAYER.

APPLIGATION FILED MAY 19. 1913.

Patented May 26, 1914.

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HENRY HILAIRE MELANSON, 0F MONCTON, NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA.

NUMBER-DISPLAYER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 26, 1914.-

Application filed May 19, 1913. Serial No. 768,620.

T0 @ZZ whom t may concern Be it known that I, HENRY HILAIRE MEL- AxsoN, a subject of the King of Great Britain, and resident at 100 Bostford street, in the city of Moncton, in the Province of New Brunswick, Canada, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Number- Displayers; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and eXact description of the same.

The invention is a number displayer and has for its object to provide a flat holder particularly suitable for displaying the numbers of railway cars and in which t-he said numbers are readily interchangeable to form any combination.

Briefly, the invention consists of a flat frame in which a number of small slides are adapted to be inserted` side by side, each of said slides containing a plurality of cards each of which bears a plurality of numbers on one or both sides. The numbers of a card in o-ne slide aline with the numbers on the adjacent slides and one row of numbers, that is to say, one of each slide appears opposite an opening in the frame.

The invention will be better understood with the aid of the accompanying drawings in which- Figure l is a front view. Fig. 2 a rear view. Fig. 3 a section on the dotted line A-B of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 a front view of one of the slides with its cards partly positioned therein and Fig. 5 is a side edge view of the slide without its cards.

Like numerals of reference indicate corresponding parts in each ligure.

Referring to the drawings in which the invention is shown applied to a number displayer for indicating car numbers, l designates a frame in which the back 2 is spaced from the front 3 to form a flat pocket which is divided into a plurality of separate pockets 4 by the vertical partitions 5. The front 3 of the frame has an opening 6 in its front face through which the numbers can be seen as hereinafter more fully explained, while at the other end of t-he frame there is a suitable designation such as the word Car but any designation can be placed in this space and it may be accomplished by a glued card or ticket 7 which lies on top of the partitions within an opening 8 and therefore does not obstruct the pockets 4. The frame is closed at its lower edge and open at its top edge, the rear side of the frame being preferably cut away from the top as clearly shown in Fig. 2.

9 are the slides formed of metal pieces of just suiicient width to slide easily in the pockets 4 and of suliicient length to reach from top to bottom of said pockets, the ends of each slide having the bent over pieces 10 and the punched out tongue clip ll on its back face. Each slide 9 contains a plurality of numeral cards 1Q. which are slid into the said slide laterally, as clearly shown in Fig. 4 and each of these cards bears a plurality of numbers preferably two on each side of the card so that the whole slide contains the numbers O, l, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, said numbers being regularly spaced apart on the length of the cards so that when the' slides are in position in the frame as shown in Fig. l the lower numbers of one card will aline with the lower numbers of the other cards, while the upper numbers will all be hidden, because the opening 6 is made only large enough to display the lower numbers. Thus it will be seen that any number from 0 to 9 can be displayed in each of the pockets 4 so that any combination desired can be obtained to 999, but it must be understood that there may be any number of pockets in the frame and the designation at the upper end of the frame may be anything desired, for instance, the device may be used as a hymn indicator in which case the designation would 'be the word Hymn. Again the device may be used as a window ticket in which case the designation might be Sale price or Reduced to and one of the cards or a special card may be provided bearing the dollar sign.

Obviously the invention has many uses but the essential feature is the plurality of slides containing a number of cards each bearing numbers on one or both sides and it may be here stated that it is preferable to use both sides of the cards and only two numbers on each side as shown in the drawings, because in this manner the numbers can be made very much larger in proportion to the size of the frame.

The purpose of the tongue clip ll is to grip the rear side of the frame as clearly shown in Fig. 2 when the slide is forced fully home into its pocket, thus preventing the slide shaking out of its pocket. Each slide may be readily withdrawn however from the pocket by pushing upwardly on the tongue.

I reserve the right to modify the invention if found desirable so long as I do not depart from the claims for novelty following this description.

That I claim is:

l. In a device of the class described, a frame formed into pockets positioned side by side and having an opening in its front face extending across said pockets, a plurality of slides one for each of said pockets, each of said slides comprising a pocket with an open side partially alining with said front face opening, and a number of strips disposed in layers Within said slide pocket and bearing suitable designations7 a designation o-n the uppermost strip of one slide alining with corresponding designations of the adjacent slides to form a combination which can be seen through the aforesaid; opening in the frame. i

2. In a number displayer, a frame having a back and vertical partitions therein forming a plurality of side by side pockets and also having a sight opening in its front face extending across said pockets, a plurality of slides itting one in each of said pockets, each of said slides having an open side partially alining With said front face opening and each having a tongue clip at its rear side gripping the top edge o the back of said frame, and a plurality of cards superimposed Within each of said slides one card in each slide being visible through the aforesaid sight opening.

Signed at the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada this 6th day of May, 1913.

HENRY HILAIRE MELANSON. Vitnesses M. PATENAUDE, P. LETELLIER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

